This article highlights the lessons learned from recent research into the use made of an online learning environment by workplace-based students. The findings show a lot of interesting things, such as the tendency to study the materials linearly although there are a lot of hypertext available, for instance. A lot of useful recommendations have been extracted from the students’ opinions and attitudes to ameliorate future online courses.
The CBLPET project (Computer-Based Learning in Petroleum Engineering) aimed to design an online learning environment to enable students to study towards a masters degree in Petroleum Engineering in a flexible manner, at home or in their places of work. The students undertaking the course are generally self-motivated, mature learners, undertaking the course to improve their professional standing and career prospects, who be studying from locations across the globe and may have to travel frequently.
The learning environment was based upon an existing constructivist framework designed for the teaching of processes in the workplace (McKinnon et al., 1998), which was modified based on the results of a requirements analysis. This analysis aimed to identify key features that would benefit workplace learners and could reasonably be implemented in the learning environment within the timescale of the project. The evaluation examined the students’ use and effectiveness of these features (Beasley, et al., In Press; Beasley & Smyth, 2004) and the results are summarised below.
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